I like the idea of expressing the nation’s gratitude for the sacrifices of the brave troops who served in Iraq by inviting 64 of them to a formal state dinner at the White House — “an unprecedented event by the White House, normally reserved for foreign dignitaries.” Of course there are many who disapprove or who have reservations: “A politically motivated gesture by the President;” “What...

By building up the reputation of one of Mexico’s most notorious drug lords and then allowing him to remain free, is the United States building a case for intervening in an incompetent Mexico? For Mexico’s La Jornada, columnist Jorge Carrillo Olea asserts that the U.S. has failed to help capture Joaquín Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo, in order to demonstrate that Mexico is a failed state...

How badly is the Mexican drug war going? According to this news item from Mexico’s El Universal, to better communicate the gravity of the situation and send a message to the people and government of the United States, Mexico President Felipe Calderón has unveiled a huge sign within a stone’s throw of the U.S. border that says: ‘No More Weapons!’ For Mexico’s El Universal, reporter...

Tal Yehoshua Koren, 40, the Israeli diplomat’s wife who suffered spine and liver injuries in Monday’s bomb attack in New Delhi, today left for her country after she was discharged from a hospital in India’s capital city. (Meanwhile Israel’s Counter Terrorism Bureau has warned of additional attempts to hurt Israelis worldwide, following the recent attacks in Thailand, Georgia and India....

There is one scenario that I and others are not taking into account in predicting that President Obama will win — and possibly win in a landslide — in November: An Israeli air strike on Iranian nuclear facilities that would plunge the Middle East into war and rupture relations between Washington and Jerusalem. Such a strike is a distinct possibility, according to an unimpeachable source: Defense...

Pakistan’s former ISI chief General Ziauddin Khawaja, also known as Ziauddin Butt (head of the ISI, 1997-1999), claims that then President Pervez Musharraf knew about Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. Even if this news is true, it is not shocking. What the world would be eager to know is whether the then American President George W. Bush, the CIA and the Pentagon were in the know about this...

India’s security agencies are worried. Initial investigations have revealed that the modus operandi employed by the person who attacked Israeli embassy staff in New Delhi – by fixing bomb to a car – “mirrored the method used by Mossad earlier to assassinate Iranian scientists.” (Meanwhile, the Israeli diplomat’s wife who was in the car when the explosion took place in New...

The attack on Israeli embassy staff in New Delhi on Monday has brought into sharp focus India’s growing dilemma. While India has strong ties with Israel, it has robust trade ties with Iran owing to its growing energy needs, and is one of Iran’s largest crude oil customers New Delhi also has burgeoning ties with Israel to tend to, reports The Wall Street Journal. “India’s defense purchases...

It is a tragic fact that in every war the civilian population pays a very high price. Afghanistan is no exception. According to the UN mission in Afghanistan’s (UNAMA) annual report, a total of 3,021 civilian died in 2011 in Afghanistan — an eight percent increase in the number of civilians (2,790) who died in 2010. According to the same grim report — “Afghanistan Annual Report 2011: Protection...

The Nazi legacy is an understandably heavy burden for Germany, even today. This leaves Germans emotionally vulnerable to comparisons to their 20th century forebears. And with the country exercising ever-more influence over its European Union allies, cutting remarks that include such comparisons are blossoming like mushrooms after a spring rain. So how to deal with it? For Germany’s Die Zeit, Bernd...

Is it possible that American citizens, now under arrest in Cairo, were involved with a plot to partition Egypt into four smaller states? According to columnist Muhammad Dunia of Egypt’s state-run Al-Ahram, maps that were discovered during a raid on the Cairo offices of the U.S.-based International Republican Institute prove that at least some of the foreign NGOs operating in Egypt are actively involved...

UPDATE: A wave of unusually severe cold is gripping Europe. But the weather is not the only thing that is chilling over there. Under the headline “A Chilling Verdict in Spain,” the New York Times reports that “The enemies of Judge Baltasar Garzón have finally gotten their way” as Spain’s Supreme Court has found Judge Garzón guilty of misapplying the country’s wiretap law and suspended him from...

As the crisis — and brutality — continues to unfold in Syria, keep an eye on Iran, its role and its designs. Michael Youhana has a must read in the NYU Local. Here’s part of it: The Syrian regime’s appalling crackdown — which has left around 6000 dead — has been one of the most violent government responses to the Arab Spring’s wave of uprisings. On Friday, bad became worse when, according...

When it comes to the oppression of dissent in Syria, are the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council undermining global peace and security by issuing ‘reckless vetoes’? According to this editorial from Japan’s Kochi Shimbun, by concerning themselves with the interests of their own countries rather than what is best for the world, China, Russia, America, Britain and France are demonstrating...

Would the United States, utilizing what is known as a ‘false flag’ strategy, sacrifice a nuclear aircraft carrier to persuade the world that a war against Iran must be waged? According to columnist Anna Pinderak of Poland’s Wprost24, a theory is making the rounds that the Pentagon has sent the famed USS Enterprise to the Persian Gulf – to sink it – and then to blame Tehran...

Hindsight is always 20-20, of course, but it turns out that the widespread fear — bordering on panic — that there would be a second wave of attacks in the months after 9/11 was misplaced because it turns out that Al Qaeda was a one-hit wonder. This reality is revealed in an article in a leftist rag called the Air Force Times that says that the government underestimated the terrorist group before...

Way back in 1971 when I was a young Air Force captain I clearly remember a woman in my Service totally outranking me — receiving her first star. The woman was Brigadier General Jeanne M. Holm and I remember it clearly because Holm was the first female general in the Air Force — a thing unheard of in those days. She would make history again a couple of years later when, in 1973 , she was promoted...

Are young people in America less stridently nationalistic than their predecessors? Columnist Fyodor Lukyanov of Russia’s Gazeta, citing recent Pew Research Center polling data, asserts in this detailed evaluation of U.S. public attitudes, that there is a declining tendency on the part of the U.S. population to believe in American exceptionalism, and concludes that U.S. foreign policy will be increasingly...

How should we characterize the impending end of Western military operations in Afghanistan? Was it a painful defeat, a hard-won success, or something in between? Columnist Danièle Fonck of Luxembourg’s Le Jeudi writes that nothing worthwhile has been gained by the Afghanistan invasion, and the soldiers who died – whether Westerners want to admit it to themselves or not – did so in vain. For...

By now most readers know my (changed) position on the Afghanistan War. I have expressed concern among other about rampant corruption and backstabbing at the highest levels in the Afghanistan government, incompetence of and disloyalty among its military and police and continuing human rights violations. I have mourned our casualties and fretted about our huge financial costs. But — perhaps insensitively...